Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Just finished The Men in the Jungle, by Norman Spinrad. A disturbing tale of fomenting revolution on a planet of cannibalistic sadists. Not too surprising that it came from the author of The Iron Dream, and like that book something of a dark satire of genre conventions.
Glad I read it, but man, what a dark book. Will grab something lighter for my next book...
The Nick Adams stories, by Ernest Hemingway
Reading the Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko. Not too far in yet, but a decent start to the story, and some good visuals of Moscow as background.
"The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" by Diana Wynne Jones. Hilarious, as she nails all the fantasy cliches in her breakdown of fantasy vocabulary. Any fan of the genre will appreciate her biting wit and devilish humour. Picked it up for $5.99 at my local Chapters and worth every penny. Especially comedic after reading Elric of Melnibone and all those old pulp fiction fantasy targets.
Rats and the Ruling Sea by Robert Redick.
"The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" by Diana Wynne Jones. Hilarious, as she nails all the fantasy cliches in her breakdown of fantasy vocabulary. Any fan of the genre will appreciate her biting wit and devilish humour. Picked it up for $5.99 at my local Chapters and worth every penny. Especially comedic after reading Elric of Melnibone and all those old pulp fiction fantasy targets.
This should be required reading for every single person ever planning to write a fantasy novel. Probably every DM as well.
My favourite bit is when she discusses the fact that most fantasy worlds don't have any female horses (every horse is a strapping stallion) so obviously they must reproduce via pollination ;-)
I just finished "Becoming Charlamagne" (I forget the author). I am currently reading "History of the Persian Empire" by Olmstead.
Becoming Charlemagne is a great book, but half of the book is cites, quotations and footnotes. It made it rather short but enjoyable. Read Persian Fire by Tom Holland, Dennis, if you want, in my opinion, the best book on the Greek clash with the Persians. It's a fantastic read and he makes history come alive.
Yeah I was bit disappointed with the length of Becoming Charlamagne though I did enjoy the feel of the time period the author tried to get across. Is Persian Fire a recent book, I think I may have looked at it a few months back. I like the History of the Persian Empire because it is written from more of an eastern not necessarily western viewpoint.
Here's an Amazon link for it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Persian-Fire-First-Empire-Battle/dp/0316726648.
It's been a while since I read it, but I remember I read the thing pretty damn fast considering it was a history book. Smooth and easy read, not dry like most history books. I tried to read his new one "Millenium" on the coming of Christendom but it wasn't in the same league as Persian Fire. The reviews on that Amazon link will tell you all. "Rubicon" on the Roman Empire is pretty good as well.
Currently reading "American Psycho". Entertaining, but gruesome as hell in some spots. It's a crazy book: descriptive, hilarious and cringingly evil. It's an experience.
I really tried to get through House of Chains by Steven Erickson, but my interest just collapsed at the middle. Taking too long to get interesting, the characters I like aren't getting a lot of the spotlight. I need a long break from Erickson.
Reading stories here and there from my very battered Penguin Classics version of The Call of Cthulu and Other Stories until Jeff Vadermeer's newest, Finch arrives with The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington.
I really tried to get through House of Chains by Steven Erickson, but my interest just collapsed at the middle. Taking too long to get interesting, the characters I like aren't getting a lot of the spotlight. I need a long break from Erickson.
House of Chains was by far my least favorite book in the series. But the next book, Midnite Tides is up there as one of my favorites. HOC was a bit of a struggle though, I agree. Just finished Toll the Hounds myself. Series really does start to come together!!
Brian
Finished Stephen Hunt's Court of the Air and started Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea.
On a whimsy, I have just started Leviathan (the steampunk novel by Scott Westerfeld). I am only on page 10 and it seems like a good, fun read so far.
Make sure that you all read Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen - It's absolutely the most incredible and complex fantasy series in years - far exceeds Martin and leaves Jordan where it belongs, way back in the dust...MUST READ NOW!
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Re-reading Dilvish the Damned and The changing land by Roger Zelazny.
Still about halfway through The samarkand Solution by Gary Gygax, Thank you Planet stories.
Non fiction I am re-reading About Time Einstein's Unfinished Revolution by Paul Davies. As Well as Storms from the Sun the emerging science of space weather by Michael Carlowicz and Ramon Lopez.
I recommend all these books highly.
Moxyland by Lauren Beukes
Tone of the Undergates by Sam Sykes. Many role-players will recognise the bickering characters...
Just finished "The Three of Swords," by Fritz Leiber. The Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories are supposed to be classics... I found them disappointing.
I am currently reading The Best of Michael Moorcock.
Just started a review copy of Terminal World, Alastair Reynolds' big new novel for 2010. Reynolds has reached that Pratchett kind of level where he delivers a new book every year without fail (unlike Pratchett, usually in different settings) and without fail it is great. Not always a classic, but always very good.
This one looks like one of his classics. The atmosphere is the Dark City movie, a sort of mash-up of steampunk, hard SF, the New Weird and film noir, with a hardbitten mortician who goes on the run in a vertical city towering into the sky after inadvertantly bein delivered an angel to run an autopsy on. Excellent stuff so far.
Make sure that you all read Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen - It's absolutely the most incredible and complex fantasy series in years - far exceeds Martin and leaves Jordan where it belongs, way back in the dust...MUST READ NOW!
...until Book 4, when it kind of all collapses and never really gets its fire back. Later books in the series are more tedious than Jordan (okay, apart from Jordan's eighth and tenth books, nothing is more tedious than that), the internal logic and coherence of the setting disintegrates and the 53rd deus ex machina hitherto-unrevealed ubermage or demigod shows up to save our heroes from a situation they cannot resolve themselves (or instead they pull out some Moranth munitions and blast their way out of the problem).
And, whilst Erikson has a few very impressive characters, maybe only one or two (Felisin Paran and maybe Anomander Rake, although he does go a bit too mopey and emo later in the series and basically is just a ripoff of Elric in the first place) are remotely on the same level as any of Martin's.
MALAZAN is a solid series, in an overpowered D&D 3rd Edition Epic Level campaign kind of way, but it definitely isn't one of the all-time classics, although the second and third books were brilliant and Esslemont's novels are very good (I'm looking forwards to STONEWIELDER far more than THE CRIPPLED GOD). I'd quite like to run an RP campaign in the setting one day.
Bakker in THE PRINCE OF NOTHING trilogy and its sequel series does a lot of the things that Erikson is attempting in his books and does them rather better, to be honest.
Tone of the Undergates by Sam Sykes. Many role-players will recognise the bickering characters...
Ah, another review copy? I just finished it. It was okay but the awful pacing and the insane level of the bickering made me want to kill all of the characters. Reading it is like being a DM of a roleplaying group where the members of the party just want to spend all the time insulting one another rather than getting on with the game, to the point where you look at the clock and realise that in five hours of gaming you still haven't made it off the first page of your DMing notes.
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Space Wolf: The First Omnibus by King and Lightner
Awesome new collection of three older novels,
Spacewolf
Ragnar's Claw
Grey Hunter
Warhammer 40k goodness; Norse Astartes.
Just finished Alastair Reynolds' Terminal World. Stunning stuff. May be his best novel to date, which given his output is saying something.
Now reading Carrie Ryan's The Dead-Tossed Waves, the sequel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth, which was great because it started as a slightly dull YA paranormal romance thing and then ZOMBIE HORDES showed up and everything went bonkers. Hopefully this one will be as much fun.
Currently reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Glad I decided to pick up this book again after the first few chapters not grabbing me the first time. After all the rave reviews, ventured a little further and glad I did. Possibly the most enjoyable fantasy book I have read since The Lies of Locke Lamora.
finished "The Mao case" by Qiu Xiaolong, interesting setting (Shanghai in the 90's) ,the plot is a bit thin.
I really tried to get through House of Chains by Steven Erickson, but my interest just collapsed at the middle. Taking too long to get interesting, the characters I like aren't getting a lot of the spotlight. I need a long break from Erickson.
Reading stories here and there from my very battered Penguin Classics version of The Call of Cthulu and Other Stories until Jeff Vadermeer's newest, Finch arrives with The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington.
Erikson is outstanding...nothing like it has been written - I cruised through every single 1000-page volume and for those who like immersive fantasy definitely check it out.
First Lord's Fury, by Jim Butcher.
Same.
Also have the "Night Angel Trilogy" by Brent Weeks, "The Hollows" series by Kim Harrison, and the "WebMage" series by Kelly McCullough on standby, thanks to recommendations and Xmas gifts from a visiting friend.
Read "The Name of the Wind". Fantasy doesn't get much better than that. A bit too many endings and a little anticlimactical after the village fight but those are minor grievances. Mr. Rothfuss sure can spin a tale.
Currently reading "Winterbirth" by Brian Ruckley. Wonderful description but a little weak on plot. I won't be buying the next one in the series.
Wheel of Time: the Gathering Storm in the HOUUUUUUUUUUUUSE!!!!
I'm still a little undecided on what to read next now that I have finished The Wizard of Earthsea, but I'm beginning to think it will be Kull: Exile of Atlantis.
Codex Alera by Jim Butcher
Liberating Atlantis by Harry Turtledove. His writing can be a bit pedantic, but no one comes up with more intriguing alternate histories.
the dragonbone chair by tad williams. good stuff. sort of a "lesser george rr martin."
Reading the Godspeaker trilogy by Karen Miller. The simple grammar of the 1st book annoyed me but the evolution of the nation was intriguing regardless. Now on book 2, happy to have found proper grammar again.
